Thanks to those that responded to my post today.
After many hours of restarts it seems that Avast! has a conflict if W2k Pro is, or is not, a required operating system. From
http://www.avast.com/en-us/pro-antivirus:
"What are the supported operating systems for avast! 8.x ?
The supported operating systems for avast! Premier 8.x, avast! Internet Security 8.x, avast! Pro Antivirus 8.x and avast! Free Antivirus 8.x are Microsoft Windows 8 (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit), Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or higher (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit), Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 or higher (any Edition excl. Starter Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit) or Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit)"
And from
http://www.avast.com/en-us/pro-antivirus#tab2:
"System requirements:
Operating Systems Supported:
Windows 8 (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit, excl. RT Edition)
Windows 7 (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows Vista (any Edition excl. Starter Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows 2000
Older Windows operating systems (Windows 95/98/ME/NT) are not supported."
Owning to the many hours devoted trying to get Avast! A V Pro to run, it's time to close the book and say goodbye and seek another product.